Last week, during a dinner after the first meeting of the European Political Community in Prague, Greek Prime Minister Kyriakos Mitsotakis was addressing a total of 44 leaders when Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdogan interrupted him and started arguing.

Mr. Erdogan accused Mr. Mitsotakis of being dishonest about settling disputes in the eastern Aegean. The Turkish president has also attacked the European Union, accusing it of aligning itself with its members, Greece and Cyprus, according to an article by New York Times Chief Diplomatic Correspondent in Europe Stephen Erlanger, citing a European diplomat and two senior European officials. who were present at the dinner.

While others”surprised and annoyedAs Erlanger notes in his article, they were finishing their dinner, Mr. Erdogan gave a press conference, from the hall of which he threatened Greece with an invasion. “One night we may come suddenly,” the Turkish leader said, and when a reporter asked him if that meant he would attack Greece, the Turkish president replied, “You got it right.”

However, prior to this “outbreak” there were many other similar “outbreaks” of Mr. Erdogan.

President of Turkeyhas been ramping up threats to its NATO ally Greece since the summer, using language commonly used by military hawks and ultra-nationalistsStephen Erlanger writes in the New York Times, noting, however, that Erdogan is facing growing political and economic difficulties ahead of elections expected to be held in Turkey next spring.

Few diplomats and analysts are predicting war, but there is a growing sense among European diplomats that a politically threatened Erdogan is becoming increasingly dangerous to his neighbors – and that accidents could happen— continues in his article the diplomatic editor of the NY Times.

Erdogan needs a crisis to shore up his precarious position after nearly 20 years in power, a Turkish diplomat told The New York Times on condition of anonymity. And if he is not given such an opportunity – a crisis, then he can try to cause it – to create it himself.

According to Erlanger, Growing tensions between Greece and Turkey, two NATO members, now threaten to add a new and difficult dimension to Europe’s efforts to maintain its unity. in the face of Russia’s war in Ukraine and its cumulative economic consequences.

Mr Erdogan has now become one a problematic and unpredictable ally for its NATO partnersas noted in the New York Times article, in doing so, he also became closer to Russian President Vladimir Putin.

The Turkish leader has been spared some criticism from allies for his efforts to mediate between Russia and Ukraine, especially in a Ukrainian grain export deal.

However, he refused to impose sanctions against Russia and continues to receive Russian gas through the Turkish Stream pipeline, while asking Moscow to allow him to defer payments for Russian energy imports.

On Thursday, Erdogan met with Putin in Kazakhstan, where they discussed the possibility of turning Turkey into an energy hub to export more Russian gas after a Baltic Sea pipeline failure.

But the growing anti-Greek rhetoric is now drawing attention.

Sinan Ulgen, director of the Istanbul-based EDAM Research Institute, told the NY Times that there is indeed a pre-election aspect to Erdogan’s actions. But at the same time, Ulgen said, there are also deep-seated problems that contribute to chronic instability and dangerous tensions between Turkey and Greece.

According to the director of the Turkish research institute EDAM, the tension in Greek-Turkish relations is currently increasing in connection with the upcoming elections not only in Turkey, but also in Greece.

Mr. Mitsotakis is also in the pre-election season, with elections due in Greece next summer hit by a surveillance scandal. And as in Turkey, so in Greece … nothing attracts patriotism like a quarrel with an old enemy.

However, unlike Erdogan, the Greek premier tries to appear solid and unshakable without whipping up tensions, according to a New York Times article. In Prague, for example, Mr. Mitsotakis replied that leaders should solve problems, not create new ones, and that he was ready to discuss all issues, but could not remain silent when Turkey threatened the sovereignty of the Greek islands.

“I can’t imagine a conflict between Greece and Turkey. If that happened, Turkey would get a catalytic reaction. “Does Turkey know the state of readiness of the Greek armed forces,” Kyriakos Mitsotakis said last September on TIF, answering a question “K” and Stavros Papantoniou.

Steven Erlanger of The New York Times refers to the Greek prime minister’s line, even admitting that “Greek military capability has been greatly enhanced in recent times in the context of expanded defense agreements with France and the United States.“.

According to the New York Times diplomatic editor, Mr. Mitsotakis also took advantage of the Americans’ discomfort with Mr. Erdogan’s relationship with Russia and Turkey’s delays on the front of Finland’s and Sweden’s accession to NATO.

In May, Kyriakos Mitsotakis was the first Greek prime minister to address the US Congress, urging US lawmakers to reconsider arms sales to Turkey.

He said Greece would buy F-35and Turkey, which remained outside their program F-35 in connection with the purchase of S-400Russia, for its part, is still pushing for F-16s and upgrade kits, using NATO expansion as leverage.

However, Mr. Erdogan faces significant challenges within Turkey’s borders, and in this context, tensions with Greece could act as an “easy” and “traditional” way to disorientate and rally voters, as noted in a related NY Times article.

Mr. Erdogan is running a troubled economy: official inflation is 83% and unofficially even higher, and the Turkish lira is falling. Turkey’s GDP per capita has fallen to about $7,500 from over $12,600 in 2013, based on Turkey’s real population, which currently includes about four million Syrian refugees, according to Professor Wharton Bilge Yilmaz. nominated as a candidate for the new Turkish finance minister if Mr. Erdogan loses the election.